The budget plan, which passed the Assembly last month, was approved 27-12 in the Senate with two Republican votes, just meeting the required two-thirds majority. All 25 Senate Democrats voted in favor of the budget.

Three matters important to San Joaquin County and the Mother Lode helped break the jam: Lawmakers junked a provision that would have made it harder for California timber companies to sell their lumber to the state, extended protection from global warming-related lawsuits to levee repairs paid for with bond funds voters approved last fall and ensured that railroad companies will be eligible to apply for state clean air money to buy cleaner diesel locomotives. San Joaquin County is a major rail hub.

The late budget had strained the finances of many local agencies that provide services to the poor and the sick; health clinics in Stockton and Lodi began temporarily laying off workers Monday.

Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden, who helped craft this year's budget, said the spending plan passed Tuesday was virtually identical to the one the GOP rejected July 20. He called the last-minute changes "wordsmithing" so the Republicans could save face.

"What really bothers me is that these guys are insensitive to the people they hurt," Machado said. "That, to me, is unforgivable. It is ideology over reality."

Several other budget items of local interest were not part of the final negotiations. Stockton's DeWitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facility will close, which is intended to save the state $2.5 million. The state will fund several new judgeships in San Joaquin County and will restore $39 million to support the Williamson Act, which had been stripped in an earlier version of the budget.

The Williamson Act gives farmers lower tax rates in exchange for a landowner's promise to keep farming and not sell the land to developers. Roughly 70 percent of San Joaquin County's 812,600 acres under the plow are under Williamson Act protection, and the state sends several million dollars to the county each year to make up the lost tax revenue.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the spending plan.

"It was a challenging process, but in the end our legislative leaders came together to deliver a spending plan that does not raise taxes, creates the largest reserve in history and reduces our operating deficit after the spending vetoes that I have promised," he said in a prepared statement. "We now will move forward together on the issues we've been elected to address such as health care, a comprehensive water plan and redistricting reform."

Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, did not vote for the budget but said when Schwarzenegger aides revised a proposed list of $700 million in additional budget cuts - an earlier version had what Senate Republicans called "gimmicks" - enough of his colleagues agreed to let Ackerman vote "aye."

"I don't think we got as much as I think we could have, but it's definitely an improvement over what we got (from the Assembly) in July," he said.

Schwarzenegger's office isn't detailing the proposed cuts, and Cogdill said he got a chance to look at them but did not have a copy.

"They passed around a list; we all got to see it. But they asked us not to make copies of it," Cogdill said.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the governor will release his additional cuts when he signs the budget, perhaps as early as Friday.

"There is not a final list at this point," McLear said. "We still need to go through this budget line by line."

Once Schwarzenegger signs the budget, the state will begin releasing billions of dollars in overdue payments to schools, hospitals and a variety of social service agencies that rely on state funding. The money could begin flowing by the end of the week.